Cases
of
Persecuted Juvenile Sexual Activity
Brief descriptions of 66 cases of children and teenagers, from four to
19 years of age, who were either formally admonished by their schools
or criminally prosecuted as a result of innocent or consensual sexual
acts.

Child
Sex
Offenders
A blog about children 18 years of age and under being charged with sex
crimes and labeled sexual offenders.

Changing the Law
The girl was 15. They chatted for 18 months+ and he never knew
where she lived, never met her in person, he never touched her; but for
saying the wrong thing online, he was sentenced to three years hard
labor and then must register as a sex offender for twenty five years.

Operation Awareness
I was between the ages of fourteen and fifteen when the crimes were
commited, and turned myself in. There were no complaints ever made by
the victims or their families. I had to bring up more victims and
acts that I had committed. If I didn’t I would be deemed "Untreatable"
and therefore receive more time. I was given five years prison time and
lifetime probation.

Citizens for Second ChancesThe 20 year old son of one of our members was found
dead of a drug overdose March 19, 2004. Part of the plea agreement was
to keep the boys from having to register. February 24, 2004 Justin's
Probation Officer made him sign the papers to register.

Save our TexsonsA young man made some irresponsible choices in a
teenage consensual sexual encounter when he was 17. Two years later he
was charged with sexual assault.

Wisconsin's
War on Kids
The assistant D.A. charged a 10-year-old boy with sexual assault for
touching a next-door neighbor during a game of truth or dare, and
creating a new rule for a game of capture-the-flag where the girls had
to lift their shirts when they were captured.

More articles about abusive
treatment

Don't Shoot, We're Your ChildrenChild Maltreatment
We have listened to teenage boys hesitantly confess that they admitted
to offense histories and deviant fantasies they did not have, simply
because it was expected and required.

Reform needed in abuse of young inmatesCitizen-Times, Asheville, NC
Juveniles at the Swannanoa Center are being wrongfully treated - and
allegations of sexual abuse and other physical aggression must be
thoroughly investigated...And according to the parents, at that time,
no meaningful investigations were conducted into the charges and no
medical treatment was obtained for the children.

Dangerous Doctor Games (in German)Telepolis
Children and teenagers in the USA are subjected to sex offender
treatment that reminds one of 'Clockwork Orange.'
See also: records from a treatment program in New
York City documenting its use of plethysmographs on 12 to 17 year olds.

Drastic StepsMother Jones
The boys are required to report on their masturbation, confessing
whatever fantasies are left in their strip-searched imaginations...They
must submit to random drug tests and inform potential lovers that they
are a sex offender.

Aversion
TherapyGLBTQ Encyclopedia
It has been documented that some homosexual men who underwent aversion
therapy have suffered serious long-term psychological effects,
including depression, despair, and attempted suicide.

Aversion TherapyLas Vegas Bugle
The story of a 19 year old who was subjected to the "intense
psychological torture" of aversion therapy to cure him of homosexuality.

Aversion
Therapy
ExposedTHUD
A 29 year old gay man died after being given aversion therapy to cure
his
homosexuality. The authorities covered up his death, falsely claiming
it was due to "natural causes".

Shocking CureCBC News (Video link at bottom)
The story of two men in South Africa who received electric shock
aversion therapy to cure them of homosexuality.

PERSONAL STORIES

Young lives
destroyedNote: Some of the following stories were
submitted to this site by parents who felt a need to withhold their
names and/or locations in order to prevent accusations that they were
resisting their children's treatment. They feared that such accusations
could result in permanent separation from their children, or other
retaliation against them or their children.

Melissa's son,
age
13, IndianaI
have
a 13 year old son that has been accused of child molestation of an
8 year old boy. Plea agreement--I
thought this would be a quick answer and end our nightmare. Then it
came to me: Why let my son accept
guilt for something he swears didn't happen? What would that do
to him
later down the line? Could I live with this? Then I found
out that if
he takes a plea agreement and then states to his probation officer that
he didn't do anything...well then we are back in court for perjury.Dionne's son,
age
10, Texas
My son was falsely accused of "indecency with a child" and held at the
Lubbock County Juvenile Justice Center where he was hazed repeatedly by
the detention officers and was threatened and told not to tell anyone.
There have been two suicides and at least one allegation of rape. The
mom who had accused my son went on the local news station and told the
whole town that she "stopped a child molester from being allowed in
school."

Mary's son,
age 16, Oklahoma“He admitted he had sex
with her twice back when they first met before he learned she was
fourteen. My son was arrested on two counts of sexual abuse, third
degree felonies. He was facing charges as an adult and a twenty year
prison sentence.”Justin Wilson,
age
10, Texas“Justin's stepmother
caught him and his 5 year old younger brother 'looking at each other
naked.' They were comparing pee pees. Justin was given one
year probation, he had to complete 'crisis counseling', and he was
required to register as a sex offender for 10 years.”

Pam's son, age 12, Pennsylvania“My son was charged
in Michigan with a "felony 1 criminal sexual conduct child under 13."
He in fact did indecently touch a boy of 6 years old. He was 12 when
this happened. He performed oral sex on
him. He
has
to register for life. At least that is my fear. Now we have the fear also
that this
new
Jessica's Law will make it so he cannot go to school anymore.”Shannon,
age 13, California“The
reason for placement was a sexual offense done when I was 13 in
California.
Basically I engaged in consensual sexual acts with 3 neighborhood boys
ages 13, 11, and 8. Treatment involved putting a rubberband appearing
contraption hooked up
through a computer around your penis while you sat in a dark room with
your
pants to your ankles listening to various audio recording stories.”Garrett
Daley, age 13, Arizona“Our daughter Devon came to us and said
Garrett had been touching her. The night our son was to be awarded his
Eagle Scout award, he was arrested and put in jail. The next day,
Saturday, the county attorney decided to change his charges to the
adult court. On Sunday, our daughter Devon, came to us and told us she
had lied. We again went to the authorities but no one would listen.”Anonymous,
age
6-10,
Washington“I was charged with rape of a child in
the first degree and two counts of child molestation in the second
degree. I was told it did not matter that most of the abuse had
happened under the direction of my stepfather. It did not matter that I
was between 6-10 at the time.”

Anonymous, age 8,
Washington
“He
was
held in solitary confinement...He was fingerprinted, photographed,
and subjected to intrusive questioning. He was berated several
times for wetting the bed, and laid in a wet bed all night because he
was too afraid to ask anyone for help.”

Anonymous,
age 11, Michigan“He is looking at being put
on the
public registry when he turns 18, along with his picture...Because of the
registry and the stigma which accompanies it, we have had suicides,
attempted suicides and youths who are ready to give up.”

Linda 's son,
age 13, Texas
“He was watching another 13 year old boy and his
10 year old female cousin bumping each other fully dressed. My child
was charged with sexual assault as well as the other boy, because he
did not tell the girl's mother what was happening.”Joe, age 14,
Wisconsin“A police sergeant
indicated that the sex was consensual. My son was very
frightened, as the detective was shouting at him and had a gun. He did
not write a
confession. The detective wrote it for him. Approximately two
weeks later, we received papers in the mail indicating that he was
being charged with second degree sexual assault.”Matt,
age 14, Arizona“I
came home from work and Matt was not home. I called and was told that
he admitted to everything and was arrested. Matt didn't admit to
anything, he was coerced into it. He is on lifetime probation and is never
allowed to live at home again. He has been in homeless shelters
and may be in one again.”Anonymous,
age
14, West Virginia
“He paid with 10 months of his life locked up, then was involuntarily
committed to a psychiatric hospital, forbidden to have any contact with
his family. Our son had gone through complete
psychological testing at The National Institute, Johns Hopkins
Hospital, giving
complete opposite results and recommendations than these experts.”

Randi's son, age 14, location withheld
“My son is a convicted sex offender. A felon at the age of 14...The
detectives told me it didn't matter that this younger boy started this
contact.”

Janet Boeldt's grandson, age 14, Indianapolis, Indiana
(Resolute
Treatment Facility)
“He was arrested and charged
with child molestation. He was involved with a group of kids, mostly
around the same age, who
were voluntarily performing various sex acts. There was never any
accusation
of force or intimidation.”

“J”,
Indianapolis,
Indiana (Resource
Treatment Facility)
“My son 'J' was accused of molesting
his younger brother. He was placed in a sex offender treatment
institution. His brother admitted that he had lied because he was mad.
'J' consistently denied doing anything to his brother and passed
several polygraphs. They still didn’t send him home.”

Anonymous, age 16, Colorado
“My son, too, underwent three torturous years of therapy,
after accepting an Alford plea because of a false accusation.”

Tony Meinelt,
age 17, Texas
“My son was a registered sex offender because of an encounter he had
with a 13 year old girl who misrepresented her age...Tony was literally
kicked
out of a sex offender's treatment program, because he chose to confront
the
leaders about trying to force him to lie.”A Mother's
Poem, by Tana Fillingame

Asa Morton,
age 19, Texas“She stated she had
just turned 17...We had no idea that my son
could be charged with sexual assault of a child. Asa was given 8 year
deferred adjudication, with lifetime registration as a sex offender. He cannot find work. He
cannot live with anyone in his family because of minors. He is now in the county
jail.”

BJ's son, age 17, Michigan
“The
only crime my son
had committed was having consensual relations with a girl who was 2 1/2
weeks away from being the age of consent (16). He was in the SO
treatment for 14 months and they WOULD NOT
release him UNTIL he had admitted to something he didn't do.”

Carolyn's son,
age 18, Vermont
“My son was convicted of sexual assault on a minor for consensual
teenage sex...He had to sign a contract when he entered treatment
agreeing to aversion therapy, penile plethysmograph, and lie detector
tests. It also stipulated that therapy may involve masturbation.”

Articles and reports

I
Fell
for a Man Who Wore an Electronic Ankle Bracelet (in the New York Times)
"He and the girl had mingled at a party and drifted off drunk together
before winding up back in her room, where, several hours later, they
had sex...In treatment, he was shown lewd images of various kinds,
including those of prepubescent girls, with his state of arousal at
each image being measured, judged, dissected...Desire, once joyful,
became a source of stress, something dangerous and potentially ugly
that needed to be suppressed, an urge of apologetic shame. In the end,
I found it harder to love an emasculated boyfriend than one accused of
rape."

Three-part series in The
Texas Examiner:

Branded for Life
"Many parents do not know that consensual sex, even when the female is
the initiator, is currently being punished by the State of Texas based
solely on the difference in ages."

Swannanoa: An inmate's story (in the Citizen-Times,
Asheville,
NC)
“Joel will be released from the Swannanoa Valley Youth Development
Center...in those four years he's learned other lessons, too: He's
learned what it feels like to be hogtied for hours...He's learned what
sexual abuse feels like...'After they put me on suicide watch, they
handcuffed and shackled me.' Joel says he stayed in handcuffs and
shackles for about 48 hours. After that, there was no discussion in
therapy sessions about what had happened to him, he says. Instead, they
returned to talking about his own past, his own transgressions.”

A Question of Abuse (in Mother Jones magazine)
“Tony was 9 years old...Juvenile Court put Tony in a 'sexually reactive
children's' group...The American Civil Liberties Union Prison Project
has sued a number of similar programs for adults...Tony suffered
harshness and betrayal from adults; he is depressed and mistrustful.”

Sex Therapy 'Nightmare' Or Cure? (from the Arizona Republic)
“The hospital had told the girl to record a sexual fantasy. Then every
time she listened to it, she had to use that ammonia...her therapists
persisted until one day she tried to kill herself...”

Teen Sues Clinic
Using Penis Device
(from Newsday)He was “forced to wear earphones and listen to pornographic
tapes including descriptions of sex between adults and
children...Afterward the youth was encouraged to masturbate...”

The Unforgiven (from Spin magazine)“Log on to South Carolina's Internet registry of sex
offenders, and listed there...you'll find Lucas Tanner II...he was 12
years old when it happened.”